DEATH IN VERACRUZ

A reporter
investigates corruption and wrestles with complex personal entanglements in
this tense novel set in 1970s Mexico.

Aguilar
Camín’s novel spans more than a decade in the life of its narrator, an unnamed
journalist whose slow ascent toward prominence—one character calls him “a
national opinionmaker”—acts as a backdrop for the events that follow. The first
chapter traces the narrator’s friend Rojano’s slow rise in politics and sets up
the complex dynamic between Rojano and his wife, Anabela, for whom the narrator
not-so-secretly pines. What emerges from this is an intricate maze of
corruption involving land rights, megalomaniacal union officials, crime scene
photos of dubious authenticity, and public figures less than concerned with the
public good. One particularly sinister figure is fond of the phrase “whoever
can add can divide,” which occurs throughout the book, sounding equally
inspirational and threatening. The narrator’s world-weary observations crop up
again and again: he notes that a man nicknamed Smiley was thus dubbed after a
gunshot to the face, which “left him with an indelible smile that couldn’t be wiped
off.” That balance of violence and gallows humor infuses the novel. Another
character tells the narrator that “history is full of revolutions the police have
outlived,” which furthers the cynical mood. Over the course of the novel,
Anabela becomes more and more prominent, and the narrator is often left to
puzzle over the motivation behind, and truth of, a series of violent acts in
the wake of her clashes with a union leader. Aguilar Camín’s fondness for using
specific dates in the narrative furthers the sense of realism, even as the
novel’s events become more ambiguous.